Wednesday, January 28, 2015

The German Navy Braunschweig-class corvette FGS Erfurt (F 262) has sailed into Valletta Port (the Grand Harbour) this morning on a courtesy visit. The German corvette is presently berthing alongside at Pinto-5 wharf, and she's expected to sail from Malta tomorrow, January 29th. (28-Jan-2015)

Medavia has opened up
its weekly Malta
to Tripoli-Mitiga
service to the general public effective Jan. 19th. The Beech
1900D-operated flights, which Medavia has been plying for an oil company on
an ad-hoc charter basis for the last two months, are sold in conjunction with
FCm Travel Solutions. (Source: ch-aviation.com, 27-Jan-2015)

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Hermes Aviation has
been forced to suspend operations after the Maltese Department of Civil Aviation
(DCAM) suspended its Air Operators Certificate (AOC) last week. Malta's
Independent newspaper says the DCAM has now launched an investigation into the
carrier's operations following a request by Italy's regulatory body (ENAC).

Since launching flights
connecting Malta, Sicily and Italy late last year in December, the airline,
under its FlyHermes brand, has suffered numerous delays and cancellations
leading ENAC to warn that it would ban the carrier from serving Italy altogether
unless it dramatically improved the quality of its service. (Source: ch-aviation.com, 26-Jan-2015)

Monday, January 26, 2015

An easyJet Airbus A319-100 (G-EZDH), performing flight U2-1995 from Manchester (UK) to Malta IAP, had to divert to Catania-Fontanarossa (Siciliy) this early afternoon due to bad weather at Malta International Airport. The flight then continued to Malta landing with a delay of nearly two-hours 30-mins. (10-Dec-2013)

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Malta International Airport welcomed a total of 4,290,304 passengers in 2014, a 6.4% increase over the
previous year. The growth is the result of further capacity being deployed to Malta from
operating airlines. 2014 saw also an increase in aircraft movements by 4.8%, resulting in
an equal increase in seat capacity.

Besides an increase in available flights and seats to and from Malta, the
airlines flying through the airport also succeeded in increasing the seat load
factor, meaning that aircraft were on average fuller than in 2013, from 78.5% to 79.7%. Meanwhile, cargo and mail dropped by 3.1%, from
16,038 tonnes to 15,547 tonnes.

Last year, the airport saw unprecedented passenger numbers from its four
major markets, with significant growth registered for the U.K. (6.1%),
Italy (12.1%), Germany (3.2%) and France (17%). There
was a large drop of 25.8% in traffic from Spain, the fifth largest
market, due to weakening demand in Spanish outbound leisure tourism which
resulted in a significant seat capacity drop. (Source: maltairport.com, 23-Jan-2015)

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Hermes Aviation is
under investigation by the Italian civil aviation authority (L'Ente Nazionale
per l'Aviazione Civile - ENAC) for the numerous delays its flights to Sicily and
Italy have suffered since their launch in December last year.

The
ItaliaVola flight blog says ENAC has raised concerns with its counterparts at
the Maltese Department of Civil Aviation over Hermes Aviation's
operational status quo given that very few of its FlyHermes flights have ever
left on time. In some instances, it says, flights have left as long as a day
late. Vito Riggio, ENAC's president, has warned that unless the airline
realigns the quality of its service to international standards and norms, it
could be banned from serving Italy altogether. (Source: ch-aviation.com, 12-Jan-2015)

Friday, January 9, 2015

A private FlySynthesis Storch CL microlight aircraft (9H-UMK) was forced to make an emergency landing on a taxiway at Malta IAP this afternoon due to an engine failure shortly after take-off. The microlight landed safely on taxiway LIMA around 1410lt. Two people were on board the microlight, no one was injured. Airport operations were not
affected. (8-Jan-2015)

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Hermes Aviation will
axe its four week-old Palermo to Turin service from
Jan. 12th while its Comiso to Malta and Turin
frequencies will be reduced by half the ItaliaVola flight blog reports. Operated under the Fly Hermes banner, the routes have been hit by the
post-Christmas lull in demand. Hermes operates the routes with its single
B734 9H-HER (msn 24901). (Source: ch-aviation, 6-Jan-2014)